MTV NEWS: A mere six months ago, with EMI folding, you found yourselves without a record label. What were your thoughts at that time about the band's future? What were your expectations at that point?

JOHN WOZNIAK: I think we were expecting to get some sleep, finally. To take a break, because we'd been really busy.

DAN RIESER: Yeah, we just came off the road. We'd been out for several months with Toad The Wet Sprocket. We found out on the way back home. I think our last gig was in California somewhere. We were driving back to New York and were in Chicago when we heard. So, yeah, it was a really busy time for us.

DYLAN KEEFE: We were shocked. We just got a phone call and talked to our manager and he was like, last on our list, by the way, you have no record label anymore. So we were definitely shocked. I mean, who knows what happens after that? But we knew we needed to keep on going. We have a lot of faith in our manager, and he didn't seem that bummed. So, we sort of took his lead.

DAN: It was a drag because we had made a lot of friends at EMI, and it was a drag to see those people lose their jobs and end that working relationship. When we got back to New York, we actually drove straight there and hung out with them quite a bit.

JOHN: Yeah, the last two days of the existence of the label we spent with them crying on their shoulder.

DAN: Actually, I remember partying a lot more than crying.

JOHN: I was crying for them, but I was partying for them at the same time.

DYLAN: I remember the guy that worked at the front desk. I said "Do you want some beer? We're going out for beer." And he held up this beer from behind the counter, and he was smoking a cigarette.

JOHN: I already got one. Thanks, but no thanks, pal. It was a shock, but there were some radio stations that just kept bangin' the record. They just kept playing it, and I'm sure someone asked them to stop. Like hey, put this on the q.t. for a second 'cause there's all that promotional stuff that goes on in the radio business, and they didn't. They were like, you know what? People are requesting this song and we're going to keep playing it. So, I think Capitol Records was curious by that, and they just decided to pick up the contract that was left in the wake of the EMI catastrophe.

MTV NEWS: Do you think that, in a way, the single made it a very easy transition? It sort of sold you guys, I guess, if this thing is out there without any support and still getting a ton of air play...

JOHN: Yeah, it has been radio.

DYLAN: The single is like a commercial for your record. It's one song that the industry picks to put out so that people get interested in the whole record, but we put energy into the entire record. We try to make every song great. So if someone else decides that, we allow them to because our business is not business. It's their business.

JOHN: Our business is the music. So if we're happy with everything on the record, then whatever they pick is going to be fine with us.

DYLAN: They know more about marketing than we do.

JOHN: Yeah, we don't know anything about that sort of thing. Though we are learning.

MTV NEWS: I guess because of the focusing on the music, and the kind of confidence it sounds like you have in your music, you don't seem like you were too terribly worried about that down time when there wasn't a label.

JOHN: No, not for us. No. I don't remember being concerned about our future at all. It comes down to when do you consider yourself successful. I felt that we were successful when we finished the record. We felt great about it and we were going out and playing it and people were actually signing our mailing list. That was where I really found the level of success I always wanted to reach. I didn't need to be concerned if I was going to be on a major label or this or that or the other thing.

DYLAN: Each artist has spent years without labels playing music.

JOHN: Yeah, we've been doing this for a long time.

DYLAN: Yeah, it's a shock and a drag. It's a shock to watch a whole company collapse like that, a large company. But, you just go back to the drawing board. You just keep playing, hopefully.

JOHN: It's kind of like when Shamu, the killer whale, dies. Everyone's going to be like, Shamu's been around forever! I don't understand how can Shamu die! It's kind of like that... Okay, so maybe that's not such a good example.